3D numerical and experimental study on upscaling two phase relative permeability curve of naturally fractured reservoirs

Abstract

In this paper, an integrated approach of upscaling of laboratory derived relative permeability to reservoir grid block scale under poroelastic frame work is presented. In this approach, capillary and viscous forces are assumed to be dominating which allows us to obtain a reasonable up-scaled relative permeability curves. In order to improve the computation efficiency first, the reservoir is divided into a number of grid blocks (20 m × 20 m × 30 m) and then each block is further divided into laboratory glass bead scale blocks (20 cm × 10 m × 2 cm). Next, relative permeability correlation generated based on glass bead model is used to upscale the laboratory estimate of the relative permeability curve to each fine scale grid (Fahad et al., 2017). Levenberg-Marquardt inversion algorithm is used in the upscaling process in order to match the oil recovery or water breakthrough time. The upscaling approach is applied to a reservoir domain of a typical fractured basement reservoir in Vietnam offshore. [Received: August 20, 2017; Accepted: February 1, 2018]